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Pope condemns drug trade’s ‘dealers of death’ in Mexico Pope celebrates indigenous in Chiapas as Catholics dwindle
(about 5 hours later)
ECATEPEC, Mexico — Pope Francis condemned the drug trade’s “dealers of death” and urged Mexicans to shun the devil’s lust for money as he led a huge open-air Mass for more than 300,000 people Sunday in this violence-riddled city. SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico — Pope Francis is celebrating Mexico’s Indians on Monday with a visit to heavily indigenous Chiapas state, where he will preside over a Mass in three native languages thanks to a new Vatican decree approving their use in liturgy.
“Let us get it into our heads: With the devil, there is no dialogue,” the pope said at the biggest scheduled event of his five-day visit to Mexico. But the visit, at the midway mark of Francis’ five-day trip to Mexico, is also aimed at boosting the faith in the least Catholic state in Mexico.
Francis brought a message of encouragement on the second full day of his trip to residents of Ecatepec, a poverty-stricken Mexico City suburb of some 1.6 million people where drug violence, kidnappings and gangland-style killings, particularly of women, are a fact of life. History’s first Latin American pope has already issued a sweeping apology for the Catholic Church’s colonial-era crimes against the continent’s indigenous. On Monday, he’ll go further by celebrating their culture in ways the local church hierarchy has often sought to play down, in a clear demonstration of his belief that Indians have an important role to play in Mexico today.
“He’s coming to Ecatepec because we need him here,” said Ignacia Godinez, a 56-year-old homemaker. “Kidnappings, robberies and drugs have all increased, and he is bringing comfort. His message will reach those who need it so that people know we, the good people, outnumber the bad.” “I ask you to show singular tenderness in the way you regard indigenous peoples and their fascinating but not infrequently decimated cultures,” Francis told Mexico’s bishops Saturday in a speech outlining their marching orders. “The indigenous people of Mexico still await true recognition of the richness of their contribution and the fruitfulness of their presence.”
In a clear reference to the drug lords who hold sway in the city’s sprawling expanses of cinderblock slums, Francis focused his homily on the danger posed by the devil. The Mexican hierarchy has long bristled at the region’s “Indian church,” a mixture of Catholicism and indigenous culture that includes pine boughs, eggs and references to “God the Father and Mother” in services. It was a tradition that was embraced by the late bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas, Samuel Ruiz, who ran afoul of both the Mexican church and the Vatican at times for his use of the local ways.
“Only the power of the word of God can defeat him,” the pope said. Monday’s Mass will include readings, prayers and hymns in the three main indigenous languages of Chiapas: Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chol, which are spoken by just over 1 million people, according to Mexico’s latest census. The Vatican has said the pope would present the official decree authorizing the languages to be used, some 50 years after the Second Vatican Council paved the way for Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than in Latin.
In a final prayer, he urged Mexicans to make their country into a land of opportunity “where there will be no need to emigrate in order to dream, no need to be exploited in order to work, no need to make the despair and poverty of many the opportunism of a few, a land that will not have to mourn men and women, young people and children who are destroyed at the hands of the dealers of death.” “Vatican II in liturgy finally comes to Chiapas,” said the Rev. Manuel Dorantes, an assistant Vatican spokesman who is from Mexico.
The faithful lined the pope’s motorcade route to the huge field where the Mass took place, tossing flower petals as he passed by and cheering with pom-poms in the yellow and white of the Vatican flag. Despite the pope’s overture, residents of Chiapas said they believe Francis is coming mostly to confirm their faith, not their status as indigenous.
Vendors sold T-shirts, plates with Francis’ image on them, pins, bandanas and cardboard-cutout figures of the pope. “It doesn’t matter that I’m indigenous; I think it’s more that I’m Catholic,” said Emanuel Gomez, a 22-year-old Tzotzil who planned to attend the Mass. “The pope comes to encourage our hearts and faith as Catholics.”
An estimated 100,000 people have been killed and 27,000 have disappeared in gangland violence since President Enrique Pena Nieto’s predecessor launched an offensive against drug cartels shortly after taking office in late 2006. He added, though, that the visit would “lift us up so we don’t feel scorned by the powerful and rich.”
At least 1,554 women have vanished in Mexico State since 2005, according to the National Observatory on Femicide, and last year the government issued an alert over the killings of women in Ecatepec and other parts of the state. According to government statistics about 46 percent of Mexicans were living in poverty in 2014. That number surges in Chiapas, where some 76 percent were living in poverty, 32 percent in extreme poverty.
Nevertheless, women who came to see Francis said they felt safe, thanks in part to the huge security presence. The government assigned more than 10,000 police, soldiers and members of the presidential guard to protect the motorcade and Mass. Francis has insisted that his is a “poor church, for the poor,” and was expected to address the problems of poverty and marginalization Monday. After the Mass, Francis was scheduled to hear testimony from a handful of Chiapas families about the hardships they face.
“I’m protected by my faith and the joy of seeing the pope up close,” said Graciela Elizalde, 35, who arrived at the field Saturday evening and spent the night on the street, “and the thugs know that we the good people have come out to take the streets.” “He comes to redeem an entire struggle by the people,” said the Rev. Marcelino Perez, an indigenous priest who will translate the pope’s homily into Tzotzil during the Mass.
She added: “The pope is not going to change things, but at least he will touch the hearts of those who do harm and are trying to destroy the country. He is the ‘messenger of peace’ because that’s exactly what Mexico needs, not just Ecatepec.” Francis’ visit comes amid strong challenges to the church in the southern state, including huge inroads by evangelical Protestants who have helped turn Chiapas into the least Catholic and one of the most Protestant and evangelical in Mexico. According to the 2010 census, Chiapas was 58 percent Catholic, compared to a national average of 83 percent.
However, Maria de la Luz Estrada, coordinator of the National Observatory on Femicide, said she was disappointed that Francis didn’t directly condemn violence against women or offer support to families of victims, saying that at the very least he could have made reference to discrimination against women. Relations between the two groups haven’t always been smooth.
“I still feel that he owes us these words,” she said. In some communities, residents have expelled or ostracized any inhabitant who converts to Protestantism, often taking their lands or possessions, or denying them access to basic services like water or electricity.
Conchita Tellez, 65, from the border city of Mexicali, held out hope that Francis can help ease the troubled soul of the country. Francis has close personal friendships in the evangelical and Protestant communities, but it was unclear how he might tackle the Protestant-Catholic divide in Chiapas.
“The pope comes to Mexico at a very ugly moment,” Tellez said, “and he comes to pray for us and for all those who lost hope and have submerged the country in blood and violence.” San Cristobal is home to two of the most famed religious defenders of indigenous people in Mexican history: Bishops Bartolome de las Casas in the 16th century and Samuel Ruiz, who died in 2011.
Francis’ grueling schedule seemed to be taking a toll on him on Saturday, when the 79-year-old pontiff appeared to nod off at an evening Mass and also lost his balance and fell into a chair set up for him. He appeared much livelier Sunday, beaming and waving at the crowds along his route. Both were beloved by indigenous people and widely reviled among the wealthy classes and much of the church hierarchy. Many officials accused Ruiz of acting on behalf of the Zapatista rebels in their 1994 uprising for greater indigenous rights.
As Francis drove down a main boulevard before adoring faithful in central Mexico City, dozens of emotional nuns rushed the metal barricades to salute the popemobile and a group of lay missionaries, mostly teenagers, sang the traditional Mexican folk song “Cielito Lindo.” Part of the liberation theology movement that swept Latin America after Vaican II, Ruiz tried to fend off the rapid growth of Protestant denominations by adapting to indigenous customs.
At his last stop, a pediatric hospital, one girl performed a heartfelt rendition of “Ave Maria” for the pope. Another presented Francis with a handmade Valentine’s Day card with a big heart on the front. “You made this?” Francis asked as he accepted it. “Gracias.” One of his controversial measures was to rely heavily on married male lay workers because local culture granted more respect to men with children than to childless, celibate men such as priests. Some in the church worried the married deacons were taking on priestly functions.
The pope bent down and kissed dozens of sick kids, playfully mussing the hair of the older ones. Some posed for selfies with the pope. Several rose from their wheelchairs to embrace him. Francis also played doctor to one little boy, administering medicine from a dropper. In 2002, under Pope John Paul II, the Vatican asked the Chiapas diocese to halt deacon ordinations. But under Francis, the ordinations were renewed in 2014.
The pope makes a point of stopping at children’s hospitals during his foreign trips, both to visit with the kids and to thank the staff for caring for them. While parts of the encounters are televised, Francis also visits bedridden patients in private for more personal encounters. In a sign that Ruiz remains a controversial figure, the Vatican declined to say whether Francis would pray at his tomb during his visit to the cathedral Monday.
“There are many who feel he was more of a political figure than a religious one, often disregarding that the motivation for all that he did was Jesus Christ,” Dorantes said.
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Associated Press writers Maria Verza, Mark Stevenson and Peter Orsi contributed to this report. Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield reported this story from Mexico City and Sonia Perez D. reported in San Cristobal de las Casas. AP writer Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.
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Nicole Winfield on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nwinfieldNicole Winfield on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.